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God, a secret and proud repugnance to admit, without reserve, the eternal sovereignty of God over all that we have and all that we are? Does not the authority of God's word, and will it not ever encounter in us a feeling of rebellion, which impels us to deny or reject it? Fatal promise of the tempter! too well has it been accomplished! What! worm of the earth, creature of a day, who hast received existence from the free goodness of God, who receivest life from moment to moment, as he deals it out to thee, and whose every respiration and every beating of the heart is a continual gift of the Creator, thou wouldest be independent? Thou canst not take a step unless He supply thee with strength, and yet thou wouldest live without God? Were He to let thee fall from that powerful hand which drew thee out of nothing, and which bountifully holds thee up, thou wouldest soon be mingled with the vile dust of the earth; and yet thou wouldest be as God? My brethren, a folly so criminal, an ingratitude so monstrous, is only understood, because, alas! we all ourselves daily have experience of it. But so long as such a state of mind continues, so long as we have not abjured such a pride

with horror, so long as our thoughts, our affections, and our will have not been brought into obedience to the sovereignty of God, and under the gentle dominion of His love, there is in us, whatever we may be otherwise, nothing but sin and eternal misery. Who can live separated from the source of life? Who can allay the parching thirst which consumes him, by withdrawing from the source of living waters? The promise of the devil, then, includes within it, crime, death, and eternal ruin. Woe to him who lends an ear to it!

My brethren, in finishing this exhibition of the temptation in Eden, I turn to you, and ask you, Is not this your history? Is not this what passes in you every time you have the misfortune to fall into sin? Is not this a faithful picture of the state of your souls, and of the assaults which your perfidious enemy, leagued with our own hearts, directs against you? Ah! since the Word of God, in accordance with your own experience, admonishes you of your danger, shows you the gulf beneath your feet, and points out the way of sin and ruin to which it leads, we beseech you, by the mercies of God, and by your own most precious interests, to give attention

to these things, to watch, to pray, to flee from the wrath to come. There are two solemn thoughts which I would leave deeply impressed upon the hearts of two different classes of persons who hear me ; you who are constrained to make the painful confession, that you are still entangled in the snares of the tempter, that, plunged by him in sin and alienation from God, you have not yet been reconciled to your offended Creator by the blood of the Saviour who has repaired the disorders of sin; remember that you are in a state of ruin, that the wages of sin is death, that the broad road leadeth to destruction. Remember, also, that you have been warned of your danger, that God, after having made a free and unlooked-for salvation possible, has done every thing to save you; remember that we have this day again fulfilled our ministry among you, and that, if that ministry be unsuccessful, we indeed shall weep tears of sorrow for you, but you alone shall bear the punishment. Perhaps this very moment, while I am addressing you with an earnest desire for your salvation, a lying voice may be repeating, in the depths of your heart, "Thou shalt not die." If ye hear it and

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despise the truth which I preach to you, I solemnly call God to witness between us; and hear the testimony which shall soon be proclaimed concerning you and me in the great day of eternal judgment: "Son of man, I have set thee to be a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

I proceed to my second reflection. You who are animated by a sincere desire to cast off the tyrannical yoke of sin, to renounce the devil and his works of darkness, and you who already follow Jesus, bearing His yoke and His cross by faith, and fear above all things the deceitfulness of your own hearts, remember that you fight not alone. Remember that Christ appeared "to destroy the works of the

devil," that "He who is with you is greater than he that is in the world," and that "in all things ye shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved you." A few more days of conflict, of temptations, of trials, and of tears, and ye shall see Eden without temptations and without sin!

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